


Leaving Sing Sing

by Mums_the_Word



Category: White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: AU, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Psychological Angst, incarceration, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29558133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mums_the_Word/pseuds/Mums_the_Word
Summary: Peter Burke is a conflicted man. For three long years he had doggedly chased a young felon until he finally caught him and put him away. All should have been right in Peter’s world, but somehow it wasn’t. How many times would he be staring at Sing Sing prison in his rearview mirror? This is a slightly skewed version of the White Collar beginning.
Relationships: Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke, Peter Burke & Neal Caffrey
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	Leaving Sing Sing

Peter found himself wondering exactly why he was making the long, tedious trip up to Ossining this morning. It wasn’t necessary, or even something as dire as a matter of life and death. And he wasn’t responsible for following anything up. The case was over and done a year ago when he had given his testimony before a judge and jury and the verdict had been rendered. The repercussions were rightly deserved. Peter had then gotten on with his job of catching White Collar criminals and had put it all behind him. Which now brought him back to his initial dilemma—why was he taking time out of his busy schedule to trek all the way up here to Sing Sing?

Peter knew the drill—present his FBI badge and credentials, surrender his service weapon, and follow his prison escort through long hallways with lines painted down the center of the floor until the sanctity of the warden’s office was reached.

“How bad?” Peter heard himself asking in an even tone.

“Bad, but not as bad as it could have been. The shiv missed all the vital organs,” the overseer of this fortress shrugged.

“Why did it happen?” was Peter’s next question.

“According to one of our stoolies, a gang member wanted to use his girlfriend to smuggle contraband burner phones and drugs into the prison during her weekly visits. It can be done if the right guards are bribed and willing to accept the handoff. Romeo took exception to that.”

“Maybe you need to get your house in order, Warden Haskley,” Peter replied in a dangerous tone.

The man before Peter glowered. “That’s easy for you to say, Agent Burke. I’m trying to police 1700 inmates with a force of men earning a lot less than they deserve for putting their lives on the line, day after day. Color me surprised if some of them occasionally try to find a better deal for themselves. Now, I called you as a courtesy because that’s what you asked when he first landed here, so cut me some slack and lose the attitude.”

“I’m not one of your inmates, Haskley, so maybe you should tone it down a bit,” Peter responded in a low voice. “I want to see Neal Caffrey now!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Peter again traveled through dark, depressing corridors until his guide brought him to a door with the word “Infirmary” written on it and the medical symbol of a caduceus below it. Peter pushed the buzzer and tried to center himself for the upcoming meeting. Within a few seconds, he found himself being scrutinized by a face at the small bulletproof window as he again held up his FBI badge.

The door clicked open, and a woman dressed in scrubs and a white lab coat stood with her hands on her hips looking antagonistic. What was it with prison personnel and bad manners, Peter wondered?

“The warden called and told me a visitor was en route,” she stated in an emotionless voice. “Caffrey’s my only medical patient right now, and he’s stable, but don’t wear out your welcome.”

Peter didn’t think a response was necessary. He certainly didn’t seem “welcome” in this place, and he definitely wasn’t making any new friends today. Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea because he was viewed as an interloper trying to throw his weight around. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Peter was here because—well, just like earlier, he couldn’t put a name to this nebulous feeling, much less admit it was a case of being anxiously worried about someone who had gotten himself into a situation way over his head.

The prison doctor had rudely walked off leaving Peter to find his own way over to the lone spot in the room containing a prisoner shackled, hand and foot, to the steel frame of a narrow bed. A determined officer of the law tried to harden his heart as he gazed down at the thin, pale form with a mop of unruly dark hair. Neal seemed to be asleep, but when Peter pulled over a metal folding chair, the scraping on the floor caused the young kid to startle awake. Caffrey seemed bewildered at first, but when he spied his visitor, he tried to summon that cocksure trademark grin. He was only partially successful.

“What brings you all the way up here to this beautiful mansion on the Hudson, Agent Burke?” he rasped out in a weak voice.

“You,” Peter answered in one word.

“Me? Well, then I’m flattered,” Neal quickly quipped.

“Stop being a flippant little ass, Caffrey,” Peter growled. “I’m here to see for myself that you’re still in one piece.”

“Aw, were you missing me?” Neal didn’t take Peter’s advice about toning down the banter. “I tried to keep in touch. Did you get the birthday and Christmas cards?”

“Neal …” Peter growled ominously. “You were stabbed in the back with a shiv, so that did give me some cause for concern.”

“Well, you put me here, so what did you expect? This isn’t exactly a vacation resort,” Neal countered with a bit of resentment.

“You put yourself here,” Peter disagreed, “by being a thief and a forger. You got what you deserved!”

“Which brings us full circle,” Neal said more calmly. “Why are you here? I’m sure a phone call could have put your mind at rest and reassured you that I’m still breathing.”

Peter opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. What could he say that wouldn’t make him appear vulnerable? Caffrey was a con artist who’s forte was utilizing any opportunity of weakness if it presented itself. Peter was not about to become his mark.

“I’m not somebody who just assumes that what I’m told is the whole truth. So, I came to ascertain the facts myself. Now that I have, I’ll be going. Keep your head down, Buddy, for the remainder of your sentence. When you get out, turn your life around and show me you’ve learned your lesson. Only an idiot would keep making the same mistakes.”

“Please don’t quote Einstein who claimed that doing the same things over and over but expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity,” Neal huffed out a sigh.

“Fine, I’ll spare you that because I take it we’re on the same page,” Peter retorted.

Neal shook his head sadly. “Go home to your wife, Agent Burke. All this inane bickering is making me tired.”

And Peter did leave Sing Sing with just a quick backwards glance.

~~~~~~~~~~

“We really have to stop meeting this way,” Caffrey said sarcastically as he sat across from his old nemesis in the visitor’s room of a familiar prison. It was just shy of four years after the antagonistic infirmary encounter.

“If you had stayed put, I wouldn’t have had to put the fuckin’ cuffs on you again and we wouldn’t be here!” Peter challenged. “I thought you were smart, Buddy, but I guess I was mistaken.”

“Please don’t force me to endure one of your sermons,” Neal said snidely. “Been there, done that, and got the orange jump suit.”

Peter just shook his head in disbelief. When he finally did decide to vocalize an opinion, Neal cut him off. “And please don’t say anything about me being insane because I keep doing stupid things and hope it will end differently.”

“Okay, I won’t,” Peter unexpectedly offered to cooperate.

“But you’re still thinking it—I can see the words floating in a little cartoon bubble over your head,” the recaptured felon said cheekily.

Peter couldn’t help himself—he barked out a laugh. “At least you haven’t lost that quick wit of yours, Neal.”

“Well, if you keep me around, Peter, I could entertain you for hours,” the young man offered with a beguiling smile.

“Right, and then I’d go bald from pulling my hair out,” a wary FBI agent countered. “It’s just not happening, Buddy. Sorry.”

And Peter left Sing Sing once again.

~~~~~~~~~~

Later that night, El found her husband lost in deep thought as he rummaged through his Caffrey box of odds and ends.

“You know you’re tempted,” a wise wife remarked softly.

Peter sighed deeply. “Yeah, but allowing my feelings to get the better of me is unprofessional and … well, just crazy. Maybe I’m the one who’s insane.”

“You’re a good man, Peter Burke, with a good heart who recognizes a lost soul when he sees one. Neal is adrift in so many ways.”

“Well, I can’t set myself up as his social worker or his shrink,” Peter objected. “He’s a grown man who insists on making bad choices. He’s back in prison for a reason.”

El clasped her husband’s hand. “But he’s still young so maybe you could turn him around. The two of you already have built a relationship. Now you just have to build the trust to keep the foundation strong.”

“This could all go so very wrong,” Peter told her.

“And it could also go so very right,” she answered. “You both have a lot at stake and there’s a risk for each of you, but maybe you shouldn’t try to predict the final outcome just yet. Maybe it’s all about the journey.”

“I think I married a very wise women,” Peter smiled.

“And don’t you forget it,” El grinned. “Now, tomorrow go back Upstate and do what you need to do, and when you leave Sing Sing again, make sure this is the last time!”


End file.
